Grandpa's Old Spice and grandson's Ax Body Spray

October 21, 2014 8:48 PM

I distinctly remember Drakkar Noir as being the cologne of choice in my high school years, and suspected that it was a kind of rite of passage to manhood. I don't think that many of my male classmates actually had to shave often enough to justify the purchase of other fragranced items, but they definitely sprayed Cool Water and Drakkar Noir when going to dances or on dates. Is this something that young guys still do and why did everyone in my age group (mid-30s) stop wearing cologne? Is there a U curve to men's fragrance usage over time? Are guys in their late teens and retirees over 70 years of age the most likely fragrance wearers or is that just a sampling error in my universe? What are the social norms for using cologne? How have those norms changed over the last 50 years?
posted by spamandkimchi to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (31 answers total)

None of that really rings a bell to me. I'm a 33-year-old man and I wear cologne as often now as I ever have. I don't remember ever wearing it in high school, and I rarely wore it in college. I don't really think about "social norms for using cologne" — to me, the point of cologne is that it should be lightly used and barely perceptible, so I don't really think about what anyone else thinks about me wearing it.
posted by John Cohen at 9:09 PM on October 21, 2014 [3 favorites]

I've noticed mostly14-16 year old boys wear Axe when they "dress up". And when I say noticed, I mean "smelled at a distance".
posted by troytroy at 9:14 PM on October 21, 2014 [7 favorites]

I've never had much use for it, but anecdatapointally, it does seem to be the under 25s and over-50s who wear (perceptible) cologne/smelly stuff.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 9:28 PM on October 21, 2014

I've noticed the same thing, either very young or older adult men.
posted by Jubey at 9:43 PM on October 21, 2014

Best answer: My 30+ male peers frequently wear cologne or aftershave. About a third of them all the time, a third only for dressy, and a third intermittently or never. You may not be noticing if men are wearing anything because they're doing it right-- cologne should be a secret between you and the people you're close to (literally.) If you're not in close proximity, you're not going to notice. Go hug some men and report back here.

I think the 25+ grown men are more likely to be subtle with fragrance because they know better than to drench themselves in it or just don't care as much about looking "sophisticated" or older. And I discussed this with my 70+ stepfather-- he grew up in a time and place before deodorant was a thing, so people wore more fragrance. (I kind of wonder if people's noses lose sensitivity as they age, and if that has an effect.)
posted by blnkfrnk at 9:55 PM on October 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

My best friend in junior high insisted that Dakkar was how men pimply-faced youths got laid and splashed it on thick. Obviously it never worked, and it took him a few years to become sophisticated enough to realize that women respond more to silly things like, oh, confidence, personality and not-being-a-dick. So the cologne took a back seat to other strategies.

I wish I could say that one of those strategies was not-being-a-dick, but at least the stench became bearable. His tastes are definitely more refined now -- it's less about deterministic pussy-acquisition activities and more about establishing an image and identity that he is comfortable with.

Myself, I never wore any scent but deodorant which, honestly, was probably worse than Dakkar.
posted by klanawa at 10:29 PM on October 21, 2014

Best answer: There was a recent thread on the blue about nostalgia for 80s perfumes (and by extension, colognes) that pointed out that the 80s and early 90s was famous for its big, assertive scents.

Most likely, folks of a certain generation are reacting to that by choosing not to wear scent at all, or if they do, to be more deliberate and subtle about it.

I'm 33 (female) and associate noticeable scent with a sort of dated sensibility. It just seems really tacky and like the person is trying way too hard. Cologne, especially.

My guess is that people who were born in the early to mid 80s are right in that sweet spot where we missed the boat on colognes and any perfume stronger than a sugary floral, because we spent our teens reacting against Obsession, Drakkar Noir, etc.

That said I dunno someone must be buying all these celebrity perfumes, and I remember Axe body spray being huge among a certain cohort in high school.
posted by Sara C. at 10:31 PM on October 21, 2014

I kind of wonder if people's noses lose sensitivity as they age, and if that has an effect.

Yes. Aging often leads to a decreased sense of smell.
posted by shvaughn at 10:47 PM on October 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

Gen Xer here. Wore DN in high school. Went to college in early 90s and lost the 80s hair, clothes, and smells. Haven't gone back to any of those excesses. Though I do like when women wear perfume.
posted by persona au gratin at 12:12 AM on October 22, 2014

Best answer: Massage therapist here. Anecdotally, men for sure still wear scents. But they tend to be much more subtle in younger men. And not all guys do, for sure.
posted by windykites at 1:42 AM on October 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Axe is the new Drakkar.
posted by gnutron at 3:56 AM on October 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

I was in the category of didn't really wear cologne.

When I was clean shaven (a thankfully brief period of time, I used lavender toilet water as an after shave).

In my late 20's, I had a girlfriend for whom cologne was a huge turn-on. We went to the cologne counter of a department store and I let her select. She like Obsession the most but Cool Water was a close second.

In my 30's and 40's with kids, I barely had time to wipe my own ass let alone put on cologne.

At 48, it's a once or twice a week thing. This time my kids helped pick out Euphoria with Mrs. Plinth.
posted by plinth at 4:01 AM on October 22, 2014

My 22 year old son uses Old Spice.
posted by Obscure Reference at 4:14 AM on October 22, 2014

I work with college students - the most consistent group for wearing cologne (or whatever) is younger guys from the Arabian peninsula. Not all of them, obviously. I don't notice a pattern with the rest of the college students. A lot of them could be wearing something light that I can't smell from across my desk.
posted by Squeak Attack at 6:32 AM on October 22, 2014

My younger brother was a teen in the early 90s. He'd borrow my car and when I'd get it back, it would REEK of Drakkar Noir. I'd have to open the doors to air the poor thing out. These days, I notice scent on him (he's in his late 30s), but I actually have to hug him to sense it. Thank the good deities.

My son is 17 and wears a fragrance occasionally. It isn't Axe. When he does so, it's not to excess. He's a pretty understated person, anyhow. I'm not sure if it's that the new wave of men's fragrances or a difference in personality.
posted by houseofdanie at 7:11 AM on October 22, 2014

Best answer: I think this is partly generational and partly trend tbh. The 80s and early 90s as noted above and in the recent FPP about 80s perfumes were a specific time in culture where "big, assertive" fragrances were the norm, and heavy, complex fragrances with a lot of "sillage" aka "how far the fragrance projects from the wearer" were very popular. The resulting backlash has carried well into this decade with very light, sheer "clean" smelling fragrances with low projection that you'd be hard pressed to notice, much less differentiate from the scent of the wearer's bath soap or laundry treatments.

also yeah, young adolescents are famous for doing this, but they're also famous for not being terribly subtle in other ways, so...
posted by lonefrontranger at 8:07 AM on October 22, 2014

As someone who works at a university, I can definitely tell you that young people wearing fragrances that can knock you down at 30 paces are still rampant. For the older men thing, I think it's definitely tied to losing their sense of smell.
posted by MsMolly at 8:13 AM on October 22, 2014

I hitchhike to work every day . If I get into a car and smell after shave / cologne the driver will be a male over 50. If I get knocked back by perfume from a woman driver she will be African American and 40+.
posted by COD at 8:33 AM on October 22, 2014

Data point: 40 year old straight guy in CA. Was a grungy hippy in HS and college and never wore any scent at all. Once I got a real job, I began wearing an understated squirt of scent every day.
posted by bluejayway at 8:38 AM on October 22, 2014

I'm in Northern California and in the past several years a lot of work places ask employees to be scent free. Our Dr.'s office also request no strong chemical scents on patients. I know the work request has stopped my sister and husband each from using any perfume/cologne. We are early 30s.
posted by Swisstine at 8:52 AM on October 22, 2014

I was hoping someone with marketing data, like sales for quarters with no Christmas, would have insight.

Like troytroy, I have noticed scents on young men. On public transportation, males with scent are not noticeably uncommon. I have zero sense of age/ethnicity being associated with scent or not.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 9:09 AM on October 22, 2014

I'm mid-late 30s and all the men in my social circle and at work wear perfume (Chanel pour homme, Dolce and Gabbana etc) much as women do. Certainly not restricted to teens and older men, at least here in London.
posted by goo at 10:06 AM on October 22, 2014

Best answer: I can't remember anymore where I read this as a kid in the late 1970s, but there was an article about the perfume industry in some major newspaper. It said that they were planning to push perfume for men as a masculine fashion -- not aftershave, but actual cologne, as it was called (like those 18th century aristocrats who wore it because they never bathed). I remember reading that and thinking "what a crazy idea! it will never catch on!" And that is How I Met The Power Of The Ad Industry.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 11:33 AM on October 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

... note that at the time, nobody I knew had hit puberty, so I didn't really get the idea of B.O. Little kids are smelly, of course, but that's solvable by taking a shower; it gets different when the hormones kick in. But my point remains that the ubiquity of cologne in the 1980s really was a new thing, introduced by advertising to that most insecure and TV-influenced demographic, the high schooler.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 11:42 AM on October 22, 2014

Response by poster: This is super fascinating. Thanks everyone for making the link to the early 1990s era of big scents (and the probable backlash by those who did drench themselves in Drakkar etc). I may be under exposed to other men's (more subtle) fragrance choices as a married person, perhaps I could hold a "Free Hugs!" sign as research.

For men who use aftershave, is it intended to remain sniffable on your skin like the scent of shampoo is noticeable if you get your nose up in someone's hair? Or does it fade rather quickly? Cheek kissing cultures maybe are more sensitive to aftershave usage?
posted by spamandkimchi at 12:00 PM on October 22, 2014

Best answer: Here's a marketing report from 2013:

The 2013 Men’s FragranceTrack® study by The NPD Group, Inc. indicates that 63 percent of adult males ages 18-64 wear fragrance at least occasionally, with 23 percent indicating they use it all of the time, and 40 percent of men who wear a scent have just one bottle at home that they use. Conversely, nearly 40 percent of males ages 18 – 64 never use fragrance.

Do Guys Still Wear Cologne? (from 2010)

“Men’s fragrances were picking up around the time of the early metrosexual trend: 2001 – 2002. Then we saw a dropoff…. It’s been in decline ever since.” Throughout the 2000s, a celebrity would pop up with a fragrance from time to time, Diddy for instance, which would help drive sales. But these surges were ephemeral, and now the celebrity trend has faded completely. Last year, the sales of high-end men’s fragrances (these are the scents sold at Sephora and in the big department stores, not, say, Walmart) hovered around $779 million, a 10% drop from 2008, which was 8% less than 2007.

posted by purpleclover at 7:14 PM on October 22, 2014

You may not be noticing if men are wearing anything because they're doing it right-- cologne should be a secret between you and the people you're close to (literally.) If you're not in close proximity, you're not going to notice. Go hug some men and report back here.

The sweet spot is when you're hearing "mmm you smell really good" rather than "what cologne is that?". I have some early-30s friends who wear probably too much, and others that maybe ought to bathe a little more, but generally men in my cohort are shying away from heavily scented products or at least to those with lighter, essential-oil-based fragrances.
posted by a halcyon day at 8:00 PM on October 22, 2014

purpleclover: The 2013 Men’s FragranceTrack® study by The NPD Group, Inc. indicates that 63 percent of adult males ages 18-64 wear fragrance at least occasionally.... Conversely, nearly 40 percent of males ages 18 – 64 never use fragrance.

This is a great pull-quote: "63% sometimes wear fragrance, while nearly 40% don't!" In other news, "95% are in group X, while the remaining 5% are not!"

But one would expect meaningless-but-meaningful filler from an ad group, after all.
posted by IAmBroom at 9:41 AM on October 23, 2014

Best answer: Social norms for fragrance are getting more and more strict, more policed by the public. Then, of course, there's Axe Body Spray users, who need interventions and a mentor.

I work in the fragrance industry, and from what I've seen from a sales perspective, guys don't wear cologne for a variety of reasons:

a. they don't want to appear "faggy."

b. they don't know enough about scent, and place it on the same level as not wanting to look stupid in front of a wine menu.

c. No one knows how to appropriately wear scent in general, so they're associating not wearing scent at all as a reaction to "OMG AXE BODY SPRAY APOCALYPSE."

One of the things I love most about being a perfume geek and having it as a career is that I can instantly change a client's perspective on scent, guide them to something appropriate, and instruct them on how to use it. *

*and uh, fellas? You don't get laid from wearing the stuff. You get laid from being calm and confident and caring.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 10:30 AM on October 23, 2014 [2 favorites]

My friend's 13-yo son summed it up nicely, as he bought his first cologne: "Axe is for boys; cologne is for men."

I wear a light amount of scent. Sandalwood works well with my body chemistry. I cannot wear antiperspirant, but I wear deodorant, and use after shave and scented shaving soap. Everything sandalwood, and it works together nicely.

We have a couple younger guys at the office that wear this scent old spice deodorant, that scent of after shave, and this scent of axe body spray, and it's just a jarring jumble of competing scents.
posted by xedrik at 10:12 PM on October 23, 2014

Response by poster: An unexpected convergence, just saw that Bounce (the dryer sheets brand) came out with their "first ever men's laundry product" that is "SPORT" scent. !!!!! So smelling like a man is important, even if you don't use cologne?
posted by spamandkimchi at 7:45 PM on October 25, 2014 [2 favorites]